Cities I've Visited (Part 2)

Hey Guys,

So this post follows on from my last travel post “Cities I’ve Visited Part 1”. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out, I’ll leave a link to it at the end of this post!

Here is a roundup of the cities I have visited for a holiday or just a city break. Enjoy!1. Amsterdam

I have now visited Amsterdam three times. The first two times was with friends, the third time was for a Uni project. I am half Dutch as my dad was from Amsterdam himself! Unfortunately, he passed away when I was extremely young so I never got to know him, so visiting Amsterdam was always going to be a big deal for me.

Boat Tour

I actually remember the first time I ever wanted to go to Dam. I was about 9 or 10 years old and studying the Diary of Anne Frank at school. I remember having a conversation with my mum about the fact that you could visit the place Anne and her family hid. I said to her “All the way in Holland? Oh mum, I will never get to go there!” I will never forget that conversation and I certainly didn’t forget it as I wandered around the Anne Frank Museum.

Yummy Nutella and ice cream pancake!!

Other highlights included boat trips along the canals, exploring the red light district and getting lost/having to pee in a river... sigh...I would recommend the Dutch crepes, especially the Nutella and vanilla ice-cream ones! I also loved the random hot food vending machines, Vondel Park and finding clogs. I spent all of the trips walking around (everything is within walking distance) but next time, I vow to hire a bike!

Best Memory: Taking over an entire bar with my friend Stephanie and James singing Karaoke, doubling the number of punters and bagging free shots!

2. Tienen (Belgium)My trip to Tienen was actually with a company I volunteer with at music festivals; Tattoosh. They are usually only found at UK music festivals, however they wanted to explore further afield and took a few of us to work at Suikkerock Festival. It was a really cool experience, however I didn’t really get to explore as I would have liked to. The festival took over the entire town and all the streets were full of stalls like ours and other pop up events.

While I was working in California last summer, we were given one day off a week in small groups. A lot of the time, I ended up staying with one of my colleagues somewhere in LA. I happened to be working on a camp with some pretty well off staff members so the houses I stayed in were HUGE and in beautiful places! I remember staying in Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Barbara, West Hollywood and Bakersfield. I felt so lucky to be able to see all these places and re imagine all the films I watched growing up that were set there.

Malibu

As it was so sunny, the city was gorgeous and exactly as you would imagine! The only problem is, you need to have a car to really get a good look at everything. Also, with just one day off, there really wasn’t enough time to see or do everything or feel as if I lived there. It was a little rushed, but definitely left me wanting more! I could see myself doing a cool project or something in LA, little trips to restaurant or some site seeing as the sun set... dreamy!

Muscle Beach

Top Tip; I was alone and without a car, but I found that I could catch a bus from my hostel to Venice beach. It was then a long walk along the beach and you arrive in the beautiful Santa Monica. I fell in love with Santa Monica and will definitely be visiting there again someday. There was a little shopping centre and a lovely beach and pier. I then caught a bus to Hollywood Walk of fame, where I had a look around until early evening; I didn’t want to be getting the bus too late!

Hannah Montana House!

Best Memory: Malibu beach; finding the Hannah Montana house. Also, sushi on the Santa Monica Boulevard (a place well known for a bunch of sushi and Japanese restaurants).

4. Las Vegas

The famous Las Vegas Sign

This is probably the most surreal/fantastic trip I have ever been on. It started in Santa Barbara with a couple of my friends. We were staying at Laura’s house. Laura was the camp nurse from the camp I worked at in Summer 2015. Me and my friend Mikholt were discussing wanting to visit Vegas. Laura apparently had some strong connections to Vegas and offered to drive us there with a couple of our other camp workmates, AND put us up in a hotel for free!

We had a choice of about 8 hotels, so we settled for the infamous Planet Hollywood. Laura also said she could get us into a show for free, so we chose Britney Spears! When we arrived at the hotel, we grabbed our room keys and headed up to our room on one of the top floors! As we walked down the corridor, thinking we would be in one of the standard rooms, we got closer and closer to the end where two huge double doors stood- our room...

It turns out we had been upgraded to a PENTHOUSE SUITE! We screamed and jumped around the room for about 20 minutes, not believing our luck! There was a living room, two bathrooms, a lounge, a bar and a huge bedroom with two double beds. The entire apartment was surrounded by glass that looked out onto the Eiffel Tower from the Parisian Hotel across the way and the Bellagio hotel that was host to the famous musical fountains. The hotel also has a beautiful pool that we visited constantly, floating on our backs not believing our luck! As soon as we had gotten over the shock, I stuck on some music and we danced on EVERY surface. My podium of choice was the bar and Mikholt moved from the jacuzzi bath to the sofa!

DAT VIEW

Hotel Antics

View...

Round-up of our evenings;

Britney Spears at Planet Hollywood Hotel

Pool Party Rave at another hotel

Vegas Strip and Rainforest Cafe restaurant

Zip Lines and Casinos

May, or may not be drunk...

Britney Spears

It was an epic trip to say the least. I tried gambling for the first time! Although, I had no idea

what I was doing, I still made a small profit!

Dusk on the Strip

What's Next?Answer: I have no idea! I crave a tropical paradise and a city break; long walks on a beach and long walks on a historical pavement!